Yamaha Drums

aydee

Platinum Member
YAMAHA Drums

I think we should take a page out of the DW and PEARL guys, and have a YAMAHA sub-set here on the forum.A thread, for all things Yamaha. Share experiences, problems, discoveries, new gear expriences. Drums, snares, pedals, hardware, its like a one-stop-reference point.



What say all you Yammie-men out there ? Leave a thought, a question, a photograph....Clint? Spleen? Erik? A.C. Perkins?.................................

Might be a nice idea for other brands as well, considering how high the loyalties run in this area.
 
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good going, jeremy! I'm so thrilled with my maple absolutes, but nervous about getting the snare. there are all these rumors, about the nouveau lugs breaking on the snares with the extra tightening. Got my eye on the steve jordan snare, tho....

lugs like these make me feel secure about snare drums:
sm_YAMAHA MAPLE CUSTOM 4X14  MSD0104TM.JPG

Got a PEARL Chad Smith, A killer YAMAHA piccolo, and an old TAMA... Not thrilled with any of these. Too bad I tried the Jordan right after i'd bought the Chad Smith. Could'nt justify 2 snares on the same shopping list ; )
 
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Nice idea aydee! I know I keep promising pictures of my Cherry Wood MCAs and not delivering but give me a little more time and I will definitely get some posted--honest!

Interesting that you are talking about snare drums because I'm currently looking to buy a new one. Like you aydee, I have trepidation about the nouveau lugs on the snare drums but I am so taken with my bass drum and toms that I think I might go ahead and get one. But...there are SO MANY interesting snares in the Yamaha lineup...it's hard to decide!

spleen
 
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When I get some decent pictures of my Musashi, I'll post them up.

I would start up a Tamburo thread, but I know that we'd only get about three posts!
 
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When I get some decent pictures of my Musashi, I'll post them up.

I would start up a Tamburo thread, but I know that we'd only get about three posts!

Please do MFB--I know of many folks who are very happy with the Musashi.

And what's that? You want to start a tambourine thread? ; - )

spleen
 
Re: THE YAMAHA DRUMS THREAD

Nice idea aydee! I know I keep promising pictures of my Cherry Wood MCAs and not delivering but give me a little more time and I will definitely get some posted--honest!

Interesting that you are talking about snare drums because I'm currently looking to buy a new one. Like you aydee, I have trepidation about the nouveau lugs on the snare drums but I am so taken with my bass drum and toms that I think I might go ahead and get one. But...there are SO MANY interesting snares in the Yamaha lineup...it's hard to decide!

spleen

Yup, I was kicking myself, you know where, when I tried the Yamaha maple ( not nouveau) , right after buying the Peal Chad Smith. The CS is a great snare but this maple baby was something else. I hear the Steve Jordan is fantastic. Got my beady eye on that one.......
 
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I don't have too much experience with Yamaha snare drums, but if they are anything like their drums, rest assured that they're well made and attention was spent on detail. That's the thing that impressed me most about Yamaha.

Early in my career, I was a Ludwig man. I had a set of classics and the shell on an 18" floor tom had cracked prematurely. I sent the drum back to the Monroe North Carolina factory to be repaired. They gave ma a new drum and it was really poorly made. The drum had a white cortex wrap. You could stick a popsickle stick underneath the wrap at the top and bottom of the drum. It was loose all around. The wrap also had two seams. Why couldn't they cut a piece of cortex that wrapped around the drum completely leaving one seam? I voiced my disgust with the company and they gave some lame excuse for the wrap job.

I went o my music store shortly after and saw a Yamaha Recording Custom floor tom set up. I checked it out and it was flawless, and sounded like it was already EQ'd. I was sold right there and never looked back. I've had 4 Yamaha sets now and I've been happy with all of them. I think they look and sound great.
 
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Anyone played the Akira Jimbo snare ? Sounds great on the Modern Drummer DVD....?

Akirajimboset2.jpg
 
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I've been playing Yamaha since I started drumming, and although I have only owned their semi-pro line kits, they have served me well up until now. I do see a few things I think would be cool to change on their hardware (like nylon bushings on their stands to stop the boom tightener ruining the boom arm) but other than those little details Yamaha gear is well made and solid stuff.
 
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My dad has a set of recording customs along side his silver sparkle 60's rogers kit. I've always had great respect for Yamaha. A thread about my Oak Customs are in my signature.

Wow, that 3 great kits in the family. please adopt me ..lol.

I play maple absolutes.. so are the oaks much louder than the other 2 kits?
 
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Hello Yammie-Fans,

I'm a huge Yamaha fan since I started playing drums. Steve Gadd and Dave Weckl were really big influences in those days.

My first Yammie Kit was a 7000 in 22/10/12/13/16. When standard sizes became popular again in the early 90's I ordered a 9000 Recoring Custom in Cherry Wood and nearly identical to Weckl's set on his first CD Masterplan: 22x16, 8x8, 10x8, 12x8, 14x12. I still own this kit. No Y.E.S.S., no RIMS, but sounding better and better. Emperor batter / Diplomat Resonant. EQ4 batter on the BD. I hink that the 9000 series is one of the best sounding sets in the world. Although there are for sure bass drums that sound bigger, more resonant and of course louder, I NEVER had any problem with miking the 9000 BD. And even in an acoustic musical context you don't have to think about overplaying as with so many 22x18 Starclassic/Mapex Orion/Ayotte/DW or whatever Maple kicks. The 9000 is my current (and for sure my future) kit for amplified Pop/Rock/Funk/Latin applications.

Due to the fact that I wanted a second drum kit for Big Band/Straight Ahead Jazz situations, after a long search and after owning a DW and a 70's Gretsch Stop Sign Badge kit, I ordered a Yamaha Maple Custom Absolute Nouveau in Vintage Natural. 20x14(!), 10x7.5, 12x8, 14x14FT. This configuration is PERFECT for the mentioned musical applications. The BD is incredible, even with (or because of?) its 14" depth.
This kit is a great workhorse: huge tuning range, easy to tune, great flexibilty. You can play everything with it from BeBop to Funk. But I have to admit that I'm not sure if I'll keep it. I have played really great sets in the past. It's still fun playing my 9000. To be honest, I never had that fun playing my MCA. I miss character. It's a great sounding kit, but, well, still nothing that knocks me off. It looks fantastic, the hardware is probably the best in the world, but I never had the feel like with my 9000: that EVERY single hit makes me feel like "YEAH!". Hard to describe with my lack of English.

Neverless, I think that Yamaha builds the greatest drums in the industry. I'm talking about Tama, Sonor, DW, Mapex, Pearl, not those custom brands.

I'd probably prefer Gretsch or a Sonor SQ2......

ATB
Daniel
 
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I'm a huge Yamaha fan since I started playing drums. Steve Gadd and Dave Weckl were really big influences in those days.

Daniel


Daniel,

You may know the answer to my question. Yamaha used to make some sort of shell support for the bass drum. It was a two piece, telescoping monopod which went inside the bass drum and provided some extra support for the shell of the bass drum. Do you know what I describing and do you have any idea where I can find one?


Mike

http://www.mikemccraw.com
http://www.dominoretroplate.com

http://www.youtube.com/drummermikemccraw
http://www.myspace.com/drummermikemccraw
 
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Daniel,

You may know the answer to my question. Yamaha used to make some sort of shell support for the bass drum. It was a two piece, telescoping monopod which went inside the bass drum and provided some extra support for the shell of the bass drum. Do you know what I describing and do you have any idea where I can find one?

Mike, I know exactly what you mean. Yamaha produced these shell supports to prevent the deformation of the shell in those days, when some drummers used to remove the resonant head of the BD completely, including the hoop. The hoops do stabilize the BD shell. When one of them has been removed, the shell could be damaged.

Yamaha doesn't produce that monopod anymore. If you want the effect of a removed BD resonant head, take an old head, cut a big hole in it and put it on your BD as usual.

BTW, it sounds terrible!

ATB
Daniel
 
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What exactly does the subkick do? Does it work in un-miked situations?

subkick.jpg
 
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I think that is a mic. Made expressly for really low frequency.
Not exactly sure but that was the impression that I got from reading about it a couple of weeks ago.
 
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What exactly does the subkick do? Does it work in un-miked situations?

View attachment 14322

the sub-kick is basically a speaker cone wired in reverse, so instead of producing sound when the cone vibrates, it captures the sound. its basically a really large diaphram microphone designed to capture ultra low frequencies (50hz and below). you can make your own 'sub-kick' by mounting a 6" or 8" speaker close to your BD, and modify the wiring to plug into an input (XLR or 1/4"). in fact, if you take a pair of headphones and plug them into an input instead of an output, you can use them as a microphone. not a great microphone, but it'll work in a pinch.
 
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I think that is a mic. Made expressly for really low frequency.

Yes, it was developed by Russ Miller http://www.russmiller.com/v5/products.php?id=19. I haven't used one myself but a while back, Drumhead Magazine (Jonathon Mover's publication that includes a CD with each issue) had audio examples of two different bass drums both with and without the subkick. The difference was quite impressive.

There's a guy on here who made his own subkick and posted about it...can't remember who it was though.

spleen
 
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I'm a massive fan of Yamaha drums and drum gear. Some of you may have seen my Recording Customs in a thread in the Your Gear section. Anyway, here's my quandry... I'm after some 13" aluminium diecast snare hoops. I read that Yamaha had made some at some point (whether or not they came with a snare is of course another story...) but I was wondering if anyone might have any idea where I could get some? I've tried my usual drum stores that I buy stuff from, I've tried Thomann in Germany, I've tried ebay... I'm running out of ideas... any thoughts anyone?
 
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